Lemon Pasta: My Daughter's Favorite Dish

Assuming nothing has changed in the last 24 hours (never a good assumption with a 10 year old daughter), my daughter's favorite dish is lemon pasta. It is a recipe I've tweaked from one published in Cook's Illustrated a while back. When there are left overs we freeze them and put them in her lunch for school. Sorry no picture this time. It all got eaten before I could grab my camera.

Ingredients

1lb spaghetti (rotini and fettucine also work well)
1/4 heavy cream
1 medium shallot, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
zest of 1 lemon
fresh basil to taste (I use about 1/4 of finely shredded lemon basil)

Cook the pasta in well salted boiling water until just done. Reserve 2 cups of the cooking liquid and drain. Add the oil to the pot and cook the shallots over medium heat until soft - about 3 minutes. Add 1 cup of the reserved cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Whisk in the cream, simmer for 2 minutes, then turn the heat as low as it will go. Return the pasta to the pot and stir to coat. Add the lemon juice and basil stir/toss again. Check the consistency of the sauce - it should be thick and luscious. If needed add a quarter cup of the cooking water and toss/stir untilwell combined. Check again, adding water until the sauce is the desired consistency. While tossing the pasta, add the Parmesan and lemon zest a little at a time. If you add the Parmesan all at once you'll get big clumps instead of a nice bit of cheese throughout the dish.

Serve immediately. Garnish with a bit more basil. If you like spicy, adding a lot of black pepper is delicious!

Spicy Carrot Salad: An Old Standby

This recipe is a variant of a Moroccan dish. It has become one of my go-to appetizers, especially when I'm taking it to a party. It can be made ahead, and is easy to transport. The original uses sliced carrots, but I shred them and then make individual portions by using Belgian Endive as the plate - edible and convenient. I also like to add this and that for color and a bit of interesting flavor.

Ingredients:

1lb carrots
1 cup chicken stock
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced or made into paste
1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp water
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika

Belgian Endive 2 or 3 large heads

Peel the carrots and simmer in the stock for about 10 minutes until tender, but not mushy. Drop them in an ice bath to cool down. Shred using a box grater or food processor. Put the carrots in a bowl with the remaining ingredients except the endive. Toss to combine. Spoon a tablespoon or so onto a leaf of the endive.

I frequently add different accent ingredients to the dish just for a change of pace. In the photo above I added about 1 1/2 tbsp of dried cranberries and the same amount of diced jicama. Other additions to consider would be pickled onions, raisins, parsley or chives, diced cucumber...really the options are wide open.

Worth Getting Up Early...

Breakfast is not normally a meal that excites me cooking wise. I suppose that's because I'm not a morning person (it's not sleeping in until the clock hits double digits, in my book). I'll happily spend an hour fussing with prep work for dinner, but for breakfast a bagel sandwich with cream cheese and lox is about the most complicated dish I'll make. However, we took our family vacation in Paris this year, and I fell in love with crepes again. As it happens, I have a good recipe for crepes. So this morning I dragged myself out of bed 15 minutes early and messed up the kitchen for breakfast.

Crepes are another of those dishes that are incredibly simple, yet challenging because they are simple. If you're making soup you can really let your taste guide you. You can adjust on the fly and cover up a lot of mistakes. Added too much pepper? Try adding a little cream to mellow it. With crepes there is no room for error. But when they are right, they are amazing. To my mind the perfect crepe is springy and chewy, has a nice egg flavor, and is just turning crispy around the edges. I think that might technically make mine slightly overcooked, but I like the texture.

I forget where I read this, but the trick to crepes is keeping the pan nice and hot. So put your pan on the burner over medium heat before you make your batter, and let the pan get hot again between crepes. I find if I just leave the pan on the burner while I fill, fold and serve the one I just cooked,and maybe take a sip of coffee, the pan is just right.

Another beauty of crepes is how easy they are to customize. You can do a little filling buffet and let people doctor their own. Nutella, sugar and lemon, jam or preserves, honey, peanut butter....just raid the pantry and you're sure to find half a dozen or more potential fillings. And that doesn't even treat the crepe as a savory item to be filled with grilled mushrooms or prosciutto with swiss cheese.

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tbsp salted butter (melted)
3/4 cup all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
12" non-stick pan

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Put the eggs in a bowl. Add half the dry ingredients, then whisk until smooth. Add the butter and then the rest of the dry goods and whisk again. There may be tiny lumps in the batter - that's okay as they will cook out. But you should have a mostly liquid batter and it will be pretty thin.

Put 1/3 cup of batter in one end of the pan then lift the pan and swirl/shake it around. The goal is to get a single, thin layer of batter covering the bottom of the pan. I have a 12" pan and 1/3 cup is the perfect size. Just adjust your scoop size to match your pan - one or two trial runs should suffice. Let the crepe cook for about a minute, until the edges just start to get crispy. Loosen with a rubber spatula and flip (I just use my fingers). Once flipped it only needs another 20-30 seconds.

Put the crepe on a plate, add filling and fold into thirds. I'm sure you can stack these but mine never stick around long enough to worry about it.

This recipe makes 4 or 5 crepes but the recipe can easily be scaled up if you need to make more.

The Joy of Stock

Like any aspiring cook, I always have stock on hand. I go through gallons of the stuff of course, so I always keep a couple quarts of chicken stock and beef stock in the pantry. But there is something about using home made stock. Perhaps it's that it even makes ordinary rice into something that much nicer.

There are three reasons I make my own stock. First, you get a really, really good stock and you know exactly what went into it - how much salt, what herbs, how much garlic. Second, it's bog-simple. Third, it fills the house with an amazing smell that lasts all day. Sometimes my wife comes home and can't wait for dinner and is a tad crestfallen when she discovers I'm only making stock.

My recipe for stock is pretty simple. I put a little vegetable in the pot and sweat two onions, some celery, carrots and garlic. When all this is really soft - about 10 to 15 minutes - I scoop it all out with a slotted spoon. Then into the pot goes the big honkin' strainer from my pasta cooker. Then in go the chicken bones (1 and 1/2 chicken's worth) and any other ingredients. Basically I just toss in any vegetables that need to be used up - parsnip, potato, green onion, whatever. Even if it's a day or two past its prime, into the pot it goes. Then cold water up to the top of the pot. Bring to a boil, cover and let it simmer all day. I let mine go a few hours - 2 or more. The nice thing about the pasta strainer is you just lift it out and all the bits come with it. Saves having to manage pouring a big, heavy pot full of hot liquid. Once the stock is done, it goes into 2 quart containers and into the deep freezer. A batch usually nets me a bit over 2 gallons and lasts me a couple weeks.

I also make shrimp stock the same way, though less frequently. It takes longer to save up the needed shrimp shells - I make smaller batches since i use a lot less of it.  When I make shrimp stock I make a gallon, only simmer it about 45 minutes, and store it in 2 cup portions. It makes some cream sauces or risotto really rich and deep in flavor.

These are the joys of stock - a fabulous ingredient, nearly free, and a house full of mouth watering aromas sure to inspire any cook!

Too Cool For School

Here is a great idea for an indoor, hydroponic herb garden. Spotted this on Gizmodo.com Great for those of us with a "brown thumb." And it doubles as a prep island. Cool. But with a $2200 price tag, too steep for my tastes. And it looks like it would supply far more herbs (well, cooking herbs anyway) than I could reasonably use.

A few years ago I got an "Aero Garden" for Christmas. This comes with a price tag around $200. I saw it in a SkyMall catalog (I know, I know...) and added it to my wish list on a whim. These are a countertop version of a hydroponic herb garden. I have the 7 pod. Of course, right now I'm growing herbs outdoors. But one of these days I'll get this back into production. It actually works just like the box says it does. Not great for when you need a lot of one herb (like parsley for tabbouleh) but works a treat when you just need a couple tables spoons worth. I usually have chives, thyme, rosemary, basil (x2), lemon basil, and cilantro in mine.

My New Herb Garden

It was a brilliant day outside today, and I spent the morning adding some slats to the fence in our front yard. Our yard abuts a parking lot so we wanted to restrict the view of it a bit more. When I was done I had lots of scraps from the cedar planking. I was wondering if I should save it when I had an idea. My herb garden (struggling in the heat and being eaten by insects) was in two 30" planters just on the ground by the front steps. I decided to use a few old 2x4s from the garage and the trimmings from the fence slats and make a kind of table for them. In part because I just bought a nail gun, and enjoy playing with my new toy! The table is 18" deep and 31" wide. I bought some cedar legs but all the rest was scrap lumber. I'm no carpenter but I'm pleased with how it turned out. Now if I can just get my cilantro to grow....

Irish Chili

Last year my wife's company (Kroger, the grocery chain) invited staff to bring in chili for the staff. It was not a "cook off" but bragging rights were definitely on the line. I wanted to do something different. I'd been toying with making Guinness ice cream and thought, how about a chili built around Guinness? A sort of "Irish" chili if you will. So here it is, my recipe for Irish Chili.

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds of pot roast or beef shoulder
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 cups beef stock

1 pound starchy potatoes cut into 3/4" cubes
1/2 pound carrots, chopped
3/4 tbsp black pepper corns, freshly ground
2-3 big sprigs of rosemary
2-3 bay leaves
2 14oz cans of black beans
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 15oz can of Guinness Extra Stout
Shredded sharp cheddar cheese


Trim the beef and cut into 1" pieces. Save the trimmings. In a dutch oven put 2 tbsp vegetable oil over medium high heat. Working in batches, season and brown the meat, then put aside. Place all the trimmings back in the pot. Cook until all the fat has rendered out, about 10 min. The trimmings should be nice and crispy. Remove the scraps (if you have a dog, save them for your pooch). Put the onion, celery and carrot in the pot and cook until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Add 1/3 of the can of Guinness, and 2 cups of beef stock. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low. Add the beef, potatoes, black pepper, rosemary and bay leaves. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the garlic, beans, Worcestershire and 1/3 can of Guinness. Drink the remainder of the beer. Add more beef stock if needed. Simmer for as long as you can stand it, but at least another 30 minutes. Longer is better.

I like to serve it with a little shredded cheddar on top and some pan toasted bread. I put a little olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium high heat and toast the bread until golden brown and crunchy. Sprinkle the bread with a little salty before serving (I don't use much salt in general but this is one of those places where a sprinkle is critical).

Another food blog? Well, sure, why not? I love to cook, I love to eat, and I love to teach. Not that I'm any real great shakes but I've been known to put out a good dish or two. I've even given cooking lessons to some friends. So I thought, why not put some ideas, thoughts and ramblings - and recipes - out on the web?